95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Pulmonary Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1400376
This article is part of the Research Topic Recent Advances in Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) View all 10 articles
Intermittent Hypoxia Index: A New Indicator for Assessing the Degree of Intermittent Hypoxia in Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Provisionally accepted- 1 Wuxi People’s Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, China
- 2 School of Physics and Materials Science, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
Objective: In order to objectively and accurately evaluate the degree of nocturnal intermittent hypoxia (IH) in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), we developed the Newton quadrature low oxygen load assessment system (NLAS) to seek a new, quantifiable, comprehensive evaluation index of intermittent hypoxia (intermittent hypoxia index, IHI). Methods: Demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, and polysomnography (PSG) parameters [oxygen desaturation index (ODI), lowest oxygen saturation (LSpO 2 ), time below 90% saturation (T90)] of 732 patients with OSA who underwent multi-channel sleep monitoring at the Sleep Center of Affiliated Wuxi People's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, from 2019 to 2023 were retrospectively collected. The IHI was calculated using the NLAS (Certificate of Registration Number for Computer Software Copyright of the People's Republic of China: 12208933), and its threshold was defined. Additionally, correlation analysis was performed between IHI and T90, LSpO 2 , and ODI.Results: Among the 732 patients with OSA, IHI showed significant correlations with T90 (r = 0.922) and LSpO 2 (r = 0.866), and moderate correlation with ODI (r = 0.675). The threshold for diagnosing hypoxia in OSA patients using IHI was 7.178 (%s/min). Conclusion: This study demonstrates that IHI calculated using NLAS covers various dimensions of IH indices in OSA patients undergoing multichannel sleep monitoring. It correlates with parameters such as T90, LSpO 2 , and ODI. Independent of existing IH assessment indices, IHI holds promise as a new comprehensive assessment index for evaluating the degree of nocturnal IH in OSA.
Keywords: intermittent hypoxia, Newton quadrature low oxygen load assessment system, Intermittent hypoxia index, obstructive sleep apnea, Newton-cotes formula
Received: 13 Mar 2024; Accepted: 01 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 xie, Tang, Zhou, Liu, Zhang and Cui. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaochuan Cui, Wuxi People’s Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.